top price of the day was £17,760 paid for a 1961 oil painting The City, purchased by a private collector.

LONDON.- Paintings by Stockport artist William Turner achieved world record prices at Bonhams Chester Picture sale on Wednesday 17 March. William Turner, who was born in 1920, specialized in painting urban views based on the mills and streets of Manchester and Stockport.

Bonhams offered five important paintings dating from the 1960s and 70s, which generated great enthusiasm from local buyers and collectors. The top price of the day was £17,760 paid for a 1961 oil painting The City, purchased by a private collector. Three other paintings by Turner also attracted prices over £10,000. The paintings were all purchased for small sums in the 1970s in order to brighten up and enhance a Manchester textile factory. They have been in an attic since the factory closed about 20 years ago.

Bonhams auctioneer, Richard Hopkinson, commented after the sale: I am amazed and delighted by the prices these works have achieved. William Turner is one of the regions great painters - his work wonderfully conveys ordinary peoples slight bewilderment at the scale and noise of the city. It is fantastic that his work is achieving the recognition it deserves.